Yang Ming’s newest addition to its fleet entered service Friday on a trans-Pacific route that calls the Port of Los Angeles.
The YM Tutorial, with a carrying capacity of 11,000 twenty-foot equivalent units, was built by Imabari Shipbuilding Co. in Japan, where a naming ceremony was held in June.
The port rotation for Yang Ming’s PS6 service is Qingdao and Ningbo, China; Pusan, South Korea; LA; Kobe, Japan; and Qingdao. According to MarineTraffic, the YM Tutorial was expected to arrive in Qingdao for loading on Saturday.
The YM Tutorial is the 12th of 14 11,000-TEU newbuilds Yang Ming ordered, with the first delivered in 2020. Each vessel is about 1,100 feet long and 158 feet wide and equipped with scrubbers, water ballast treatment plants and alternative marine power systems.
“This type of vessel adopts the twin-island design to increase loading capacity and navigational visibility to ensure greater efficiency and safety,” Yang Ming said in a news release Friday. “The ship hull form optimization will further increase energy savings and reduce overall emissions.
“With the shorter length and beam, the ship is easier to maneuver during berthing or departure. The optimal dimensions enable the ships to call at major ports worldwide and pass through the new Panama Canal with little restriction, thereby facilitating greater flexibility in vessel deployment.”
Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp. is headquartered in Keelung, Taiwan. It is the world’s ninth-largest ocean carrier. American Shipper’s Greg Miller reported last month there will be major capacity infusions from global ocean shipping lines over the next two years — an expected 2.45 million TEUs in 2023 and 2.74 million TEUs in 2024.
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